My fall travel season has arrived. When I took my job at YS I knew that this time of year would happen. In fact, one of the reasons why there are some really soft times in my year-round schedule is to make up for this time of year. Here’s the rundown, pray for Kristen and I.
October 9-13, NYWC Sacramento. Live blogging the convention and overseeing the smoking YMX booth at all three locations.
October 16-19, Planet Wisdom Chicago. No official role, but I’ve never been to one and I really need to grasp what goes on.
November 20-24, NYWC Nashville. Same as Pitt & Sacramento.
OK, so now that I wrote it out like this it doesn’t look that bad again. I think the stress comes from realizing I’ll be gone for about 2 weeks straight starting this week.
By the way, I’m totally looking forward to being on site at these events. It’s going to be super awesome fun exhaustion encouragement time.
I don’t stress out too easily. But the last 48 hours kind of rattled me. Our super reliable car seems to have blown up and our super simple dog had to be rushed to the vet. So when a man’s best friend and his ride both get busted in a day… now you know that freaks me out a little.
The car. After comparing sounds on YouTube with what my car is doing, I’m 99% sure I need to have the engine rebuilt. I plan on taking some time tomorrow to talk to mechanics and decide if we should sell it for parts and use that money to buy another car or pay to get this one repaired. With Kristen starting work in a couple weeks we’ll need to get a second car soon, which just makes that a whole lot more fun to think about! In the meantime, I headed over to Enterprise to get a rental car. You know, they really do pick you up! For those who know San Diego, the office is at 46th & El Cajon Boulevard. (About 4-5 blocks from where we go to church.) The mananger actually said to me, “I don’t see many white people in this store, do you live near here?” So until we get this sorted out, we’re driving a Mazda 5. It’s half minivan and half car. Weird, but I really like it too.
Stoney. Yesterday I made an appointment with a vet that a coworker recommended. (Ian recommends all kinds of great things for my area since he went to school up the street at San Diego State.) Stoney’ right hind leg had swollen to about double it’s size, was leaking all sorts of nasty fluid, and he simply couldn’t leave it alone. The vet helped us a ton! She gave Stoney the infamous e-collar, a cortizone shot for the infection, and 3 prescriptions to keep down the swelling, fight the infection even more, and dull the pain so he could sleep. It turns out our dog is super allergic to fleas. This lead to him chewing a hot spot that got infected. I’m happy to report that this morning the wound is about 1/3 the size it was yesterday. Stoney is starting to act a little more chipper despite the silly collar thing which runs into everything. Just wait until he realizes that we’ve halved his food again! He’s 13 pounds overweight… considering he’s lost 15 pounds already since the spring… that’s a lot more hard work. One may wonder how I’m getting a dog to take so many pills. Let’s just say Stoney thinks he’s getting a lot more treats made of cheese and pepperoni!
This is powerful. Obviously, Kristen and I are feeling quite fortunate that this isn’t our story. But for hundreds of thousands of Americans this is a video that reflects their life, their belongings, and their dreams. As Jake asks, is there a ministry opportunity here?
Lots going on. Of course next week I’ll be leaving for the first National Youth Workers Convention which packs in all sorts of stuff. On top of that we have two emergent issues at home. First, Stoney is on his way to the vet. We had heard fleas were an issue in San Diego, but we now need help controlling this problem. I’d take pictures but it is too gross. On top of that, as I blogged last night our car is busted. So right now I’m waiting for Enterprise to pick me up so we can have some wheels while we figure out our next step with the car.
Long story short, music is always part of my day. So here are the next 10 tunes I’m listening too during this challenging day. As always, totally random and no cheating.
Wow, our car took a rapid turn for the worse. I don’t know exactly what happened but I do know the engine is making a horrible knocking sound. It started yesterday on the way to work. And today on the way home it got really, really loud.
Websites I know. Bible stuff I know. Cars? Forget it.
I need a mechanic and being new in town I don’t even know where to start. Adventure time!
UPDATE: After comparing the loud sounds my engine is making to some stuff on YouTube, I think the operative word is “the engine is blown.” So I’m grabbing a rental car until we can get some estimates for a repair… or if it’s just wiser to scrap this car and get a different used car. I’m trying to focus on the good here… it didn’t happen to Kristen while I was gone. It didn’t do anything dangerous. (Still runs! I drove it home from work.) And it didn’t happen in the middle of nowhere when I was driving Megan and Stoney across the country. See, lots of good news amidst something really inconvenient.
As I mentioned in my post last night, my head is spinning a little as I think about today’s evangelical church.
And yet I know that simply by saying that the evangelical church should stop doing church the way they currently that some people will instantly categorize my thought as “social gospel” in order to ignore what God is doing in my heart.
Here’s the thing. The gospel a social gospel. Pure and simple. Jesus didn’t just come to make a way for us to experience salvation. He also came that we may “do good works” to help bring the Kingdom of God to the people. This means bringing justice and mercy to people who experience injustice and no mercy.
This is what I’m really asking. Is there any way that the church can stop discriminating? Is there any way we can try to reach all people? Or are we doomed to see the evangelical church target rich white people for another generation? And will that generation tolerate classism towards everyone who is not rich & white?
I just want to pause right here, recognizing that my night may not be over. See if you see the thread of God doing something.
#1. At community group we got really stirred talking about us, not our church, being a people of mercy and justice. (See 1 Samuel 2) One person from our group mentioned this video. You need to see it and decide if you can act on it.
I just learned this tonight, but San Diego is apparently the human trafficking capital of the United States.
#2. You need to listen to this week’s podcast from This American Life. It’s about going big. Instead of thinking of small changes in your community, reaching one or two people… you can do something massive! I mean, why not?
#3. Again at community group, we were talking about something that is truly shocking in church today. At every church I’ve ever worked at we turned away people looking for help. Think about it, the Holy Spirit prompts someone in need to seek assistance (money, food) from the Bride of Christ and we (I) turned that person away. No food, no shelter, nothing but a swift kick to the curb. Is there any doubt why God won’t bless a church like that? We decided we wanted to be a people who helped the hurting… no matter the cost. Go to a church? You need to find out if your church turns people away, and if they do… you need to tell that church leader to start being a pastor and serve the needs of the community. I truly am ashamed of myself.
#4 After community group we received a little surprise. There was a lost dog in my front yard. While that seems like an unrelated thing, I had to wonder… was God doing something? Here we just sat in my house thinking about doing BIG THINGS, and talking about the massive injustice in our own neighborhoods, and how the church systematically chooses to not love their neighbors… and a dog is on my front porch. What was I going to do about it? It was as if the Holy Spirit was asking me, “Adam, you want to change the world? You want to serve people? You want to see justice in your neighborhood? Let’s start with a dog.” So, for the last hour or so I’ve been waltzing this pouch around our neighborhood. I gave it some water and I knocked on some strangers doors. It’s a weird, yet interesting, way to meet neighbors.
Right now, my next door neighbors are walking the pup over to where they think she is from. So I am stuck with the question… “what are we going to do?”
Quick update: They brought her back. I guess I have to keep her overnight or call the pound.
10:55 PM Update: Some other neighbors helped me chase her into the backyard. Animal control doesn’t open until 9:30 AM. So she is going to spend the night in our yard. We’re hoping she is microchipped and we will figure out where she goes.
